Time hasn't necessarily healed all wounds for Gunnar and Matthew Nelson. But the passage of time has been a salve of sorts for the twin sons of the late rockabilly legend Ricky Nelson.
 

 Sunday at the Atlantic City Hilton, the Nelsons open a five-night run of "Ricky Nelson Remembered," a multi-media salute to their dad, who died in a New Year's Eve, 1985 plane crash at age 45. It's a program that by necessity had to be put on hold for many years.

"Our dad was our best friend," offers Gunnar, 40, when asked why it took Matthew and him so long to create the tribute, which includes such pre-British Invasion smashes as "Hello Mary Lou," "Travelin' Man," "I'm Walking," "Poor Little Fool" and "Lonesome Town."

"The thought of playing his music was a little too painful," he adds, saying that to cover Ricky's music would have gone against the advice their dad gave them. "He told us, "You can be songwriters first and foremost.' "

Those certainly turned out to be words of wisdom, as Gunnar and Matthew -- performing as Nelson -- found fame and fortune in the early 1990s with such original fare as "(Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection" and "After the Rain."

With their radio-friendly melodies and striking Nordic looks, the identical twins seemed well on their way to a glittering career as pop stars. But when they returned from a triumphant world tour in 1991, they found their professional world in turmoil.

While they were touring the globe, the twins' label, Geffen Records, released "Nevermind," the first album by a Seattle band called Nirvana.

"We did 200 dates and came back, and everyone was wearing flannel shirts," says Gunnar, referring to the grunge movement spawned by "Nevermind."

The duo's response was to record a hard-rock album, "Imaginator," which Gunnar describes as being in the vein of the Metallica disc commonly known as "The Black Album."

Geffen execs weren't interested in hearing that kind of music from the brothers. Nor were they particularly impressed by the duo's follow-up effort, "Because They Can," which found the Nelsons exploring the kind of Southern California country-rock their dad made with the Stone Canyon Band in early '70s.

So, Matthew and Gunnar decided to play to their strengths. They spent the better part of a decade performing Nelson material in Europe and Asia, where fans aren't nearly as fickle as they are in the United States. In 2001, they received a fateful request.

"We got a call from some guy saying he was a real Ricky Nelson fan," recalls Gunnar. "He was the base commander (of a U.S. military installation) in Japan, and was throwing a big holiday party for his troops. He asked us if we would play (Ricky's) songs. We had never done our dad's tunes up to that point."

More than 15 years had passed since Ricky's death, so the brothers gave it a shot. The result was a success, and led to Gunnar and Matthew overseeing the packaging of their father's music in the four-CD set, "Legacy," as well as his groundbreaking performances on "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet," the iconic sitcom starring Ricky, his older brother, David, and their parents.

"No one ever put together those pioneering TV-show videos," he says, noting that Ricky's performances on the series helped bring rock music to the American mainstream at a time when it was looked upon by the establishment as a symptom of, and conduit to, juvenile delinquency.

"He smuggled rock and roll into (America's) living rooms," is how Gunnar puts it.

The brothers have been touring on their tribute show for three years, but only recently have they incorporated a video element. They're backed by a reconstituted Stone Canyon Band, the country-rock group with whom the elder Nelson recorded the 1972 hit, "Garden Party."

The unit includes original keyboard player, David Morgan, and classic-rock guitar hero Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan), who these days is actually better-known as one of the nation's leading military analysts. Baxter handles pedal steel guitar duties for "Ricky Nelson Remembered."

The story of how Ricky Nelson spent a couple of decades disavowing his teen-idol roots is well-known. But, explains Gunnar, who with Matthew is planning a Nelson tour later this year, Ricky's final years were spent embracing his earliest music.

He says this change of heart happened, in large part, because of a chance meeting with the late rockabilly avatar Carl Perkins ("Blue Suede Shoes") whom Gunnar says was his father's true musical hero.

The two early rockers were part of a Sun Records reunion in Memphis in the early 1980s. And while he wasn't part of that historic 1950s scene, label owner Sam Phillips and artists like Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis always considered Ricky musical kin.

"It was like three o'clock in the morning, and he and Carl Perkins were the only two people remaining in the studio," says Gunnar. "And (Perkins) said, "Well, Ricky, looks like you and I are the last two rockabillies left.'

"When he heard (Perkins) call him "Ricky,' he realized it was OK to play the old songs."

Gunnar is convinced that had he lived, Ricky Nelson would have ultimately regained his status as a major star.

"My dad was the "comeback king,' " he says. "He always believed a career was nothing but a series of comebacks. And he was on his way up again."

Show times are 7 p.m. Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and 2 p.m. Tuesday. Admission is $25. For tickets, call (800) 736-1420, or go to www.ticketmaster.com.

Casino Beat appears on Friday. Reach Atlantic City casinos writer Chuck Darrow at (856) 486-2442 or cdarrow@courierpostonline.com.